A teenage girl named
Maggie (Jill Schoelen) keeps having
nightmares about some strange man in a
twisted horror movie the night before her
and her friends reopen an old movie
theatre that has been closed down for a
horror & sci-fi film festival.
Her nightmare starts to come true when a
killer is loose in the theatre and
decides to use the employees as victims
while the murders on the silver screen is
happening.
The killer who's name happens to be Toby
(Tom Villard) in which he is faceless
using other corpses faces as masks saves
Maggie and his mother Suzanne (Dee
Wallace) to be in the final sacrifices of
his own film he screened.
We spot a good beginning with the camera
focusing on Maggie sleeping in her bed and then having
a twisted nightmare that involves Toby showing some good effects
and twisted moments too.
There's also many good moments with
Mr. Davis gathering everyone to prepare for the
film festival at a theatre as well as
everyone watching a movie and Maggie passing out.
There's a good discussion between Maggie and Suzanne as mother and
daughter when she asks her about a
guy named Toby as her Mom looks slightly
uncomfortable and tells her doesn't know
about that person which the situation
looked good that she's hiding something.
There's a nice moment with Suzanne entering
the front of the theatre and haunting
moments starts to happen like with the
words on whats playing is being thrown at
her as well good shots inside the theatre
with strange events surrounding her along with Toby approaching
towards her.
We spot many great moments with the customers
enjoying the theatre performance along
with shots on their costumes and
personalities.
There's a nice shot on a prop of a
mosquito flying on cables and then a good
shot on Toby using a
controlling device with the skeeter
aiming towards Mr. Davis with him
screaming and then a good stabbing moment
with him falling to the ground.
We have a nice shot on Toby using a corpses head to duplicate a mask
and then putting it on his face.
A good moment with Joy approaching Mr. Davis and acting sleazy towards
him. Later on we spot a perfect close up
shot on Toby tearing off his
mask with her screaming.
A good moment on a boyfriend getting aggressive
towards Mark in the
movie theatre along with a good camera
shot on this dude's punch with a
nice comedic shot on Mark himself falling to
the ground.
We spot a good anxious moment with Maggie towards Leon on Toby being in the theatre and trying
to find some way of proving it.
There's a nice funny moment with
Bud at the control panels in the theatre
pressing the buttons where the seatings
are to shock people while the film is
playing but it gets real intenese when he
gets gagged and tied up about to get
electrocuted to death as he does well
with his struggling actions as it makes
you really cringe.
A nice funny moment with Cheryl acting tough towards the boyfriend by punching him out along with a nice
struggle between her and Tina getting hauled out of the
theatre which was done very slapstick
but in a good way.
A great moment with Maggie tied in a chair with Toby acting extremely intense towards her and
screaming in a rage too which also seems
too funny.
A real perfect moment with Toby about to do a sacrifice which
involved Suzanne and Maggie in front of the movie screen as if it's
part of the show and was very powerfully
directed and choreographed giving the
film a perfect horror feel to it.
Bottom line is that this flick was
quite clever imagining doing the old
fashioned live scares for the audience
while watching the film and the terror is
really happneing to them and the audience
thinks it's all a part of the show which
gives you a real scare imagining if you
were in that position. It both blends with the horror along with
the dark comedy both incredibly well
using some elements with Phantom
of the Opera, House of
Wax and A Nightmare On
Elm Street using some original
moments too using the dark dsecrets on
who Toby really is and the sacrifice
making out it's a part of the show in
which I haven't seen that used in film's
beforehand that I am aware of. Some may find this film pointless but for
those who get a kick out of cheesy
slapstick low budget horror films like me
you'd enjoy it for what it is.
The acting is
quite good as we do have a good
performance by Jill Schoelen (Maggie) who
plays the perfect target for the maniac
in the film and uses good emotions to her
character to top it all off.
Tom Villard (Toby) really hams it up with
his performance as the faceless killer
Toby and uses great intensity to his
character making his role both horrifying
and very comedic too. Almost got that
Freddy Krueger touch but uses his own
chemistry too.
Derek Rydall (Mark) plays a good dimwitted
teen who is almost a hero too in the film
as he came across nicely with his
performance.
Dee Wallace (Suzanne) of course does a
wonderful job as a disturbed mother about
her past and brings her frights on quite
well like she always does along with her
character acting skills. Never once did I
see her do a bad job in a movie ever
since I saw her play the divorced Mom in E.T.:
The Extra-Terrestrial.
Kelly Jo Minter (Cheryl) is another one I
really liked in horror films and always
plays a tough cookie and that she does in
this film and is always impressive when
she pulls this off too.
Malcolm
Danare (Bud) really knew how to be a
typical goofball in a wheelchair
controlling the shocking effects in the
audience's chairs at the theatre whom I
got a kick out of what he pulled off and
of course I remember him playing a dorky
bully in Christine and
was a victim in that show like he is in
this one.
Tony Roberts (Mr. Davis) really brought on his
charm as the theatre owner and brought
alot of good spunk playing a guy you'd
love to work with.
Of course we have a stuck up teenage girl
that's played by Freddie Simpson
(Tina) who played a good bitch in the part of
the story and she came across naturally
by doing that.
We've got to have a bimbo employee in the
film so Karen Witter (Joy) takes on
that role and brought alot of character
to this role and give her two thumbs up.
Some mild stuff
like faces of peoples skin being turned
into masks etc.
Paul Zaza is the
composer for the film doing a good job as
usual. We have the odd chiming sound
effects with some thumping too as well as
the low music sounds for the creepy parts
in the movie. There's also good keyboard
and synthesizer booming too which is
suitable for a teenager horror flick.
Real effective music for the opening
credits which was a plus.
A great soundtrack by some
artists especially the closing one which
is titled "Up Over You"
performed by Yvonne Murray. |
